A man who beat a woman so viciously during a sexual assault that she had to learn how to walk and talk again is scheduled to face a sentencing hearing today.

Denzel Dre Colton Bird, 21, was charged after the 25-year-old woman was struck from behind with a metal pipe, dragged into an alley and sexually attacked while she was walking to work in Lethbridge in September 2016.

The blows caused multiple skull fractures and fractured her facial bones as well.

A passerby discovered the woman, partially naked and stuffed into a garbage can, and she was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. The victim was in a medically induced coma for weeks in a Calgary hospital. She was released a year ago and her family says she continues to recover, although she has no memory of the attack.

Police have said there was no apparent connection between Bird and his victim.

Bird pleaded guilty last September to aggravated sexual assault and break and enter.

His sentencing was delayed because of a long wait for a forensic psychiatric assessment and a Gladue report, which considers an accused’s Indigenous background.

The maximum sentence for aggravated sexual assault is life in prison.

Bird’s lawyer, Tonii Roulston, has said she will be asking Judge Jerry LeGrandeur for a sentence in the six- to eight-year range.

When her client entered guilty pleas last year, she said he just wanted the case to be over.

“Just like the family of the victim, it’s been hanging over his head as well, and he is anxious to take responsibility for his actions,” Roulston said.